Category: Narcissism

The following article from Kim Saeed highlights the seven needs of healthy parenting that cannot be provided for a child in a narcissistic home. Such deficits lead to lasting injury and deficits, wounding deeply our capacity to develop healthy self esteem, self awareness and boundaries. Kim’s blog is an excellent resource for healing.

the experience of horror (in childhood) makes one question one’s sanity. What one is experiencing does not make sense, it doesn’t accord with one’s image of reality which even a baby has on a biological level. To avoid the resulting mental confusion, one must dissociate and deny all feelings. As long as one sticks to logic, one is safe. But feelings are life, and one cannot fully avoid emotional experiences no matter how coolly one plays it. The narcissist faces the risk of being overwhelmed by feelings and going wild, crazy, or mad, should his defence of denial break down. This is especially true of anger. Every narcissist is afraid of going crazy, because the potential for insanity is in his personality. This fear reinforces the denial of feeling creating a vicious cycle.

Reading the above paragraph again in Lowen’s book today gave me more insight into my brother, who threatened to walk out on me last October when I got angry with him. It reminded me of terrifying incidents he faced in childhood and of how my father did pretty harsh things to him as a boy as his own childhood had been similarly harsh. I was in tears again last week after yet another conversation with my brother where we was working as hard as he could to split off all expression of emotion. I usually leave every interaction with him crying or disturbed in some way. Now instead of feeling angry I just feel really sad for him as I don’t ever think he will look at the roots of his own workaholism. Once again I shed heaps of tears after I got off the phone on Thursday. It is not that he is an unkind person either, all time the conversation revolved around helping my sister and I to get the best interest possible on the money Mum has left us.

It is now never the less a great comfort to me to be able to say I now know I am not crazy and I know why his side of the family have sidelined me before as well as other members of my family, looking upon us with such distain and disapproval due to our emotions. That said I am also aware of the charge of anger that I have carried which I know I inherited from my mother’s side of the family.

Collapsing into a state of helplessness may be one response to such terror or violence in childhood. Flight or fight may be two other responses but both the later would often be blocked by an abusive parents. Escaping or fighting back may be shamed or made impossible as was the case of Bill whose story Lowen covers in Chapter 7 of this book.

Bill did not feel any anger. He denied his anger, just as he denied his fear. Instead, he adopted an attitude of submission and attempted to understand the irrational behaviour of his father, and others, His submission to his father may have had a lifesaving value, but almost cost him his life. (Bill was later on nearly killed by a hitchhiker he and a friend picked up on the side of the road who began to attack them.)

Lowen explains how Bill then came to fear his own anger.

(he).. believed that if he lost his head he might kill someone. But to lose your head is equivalent to going crazy. Bill was terrified of the potential craziness in himself as he was of the craziness of others. When I made this interpretation to him he remarked, “Now I know why I became a psychiatrist.”

Not everyone will be able to contain their rage from such incidents, others will act it out. Lowen tells the story of David Berkowitz, the “Son of Sam”, serial killer who murdered 6 and wounded 7 others.

What then are the dynamics that precipitate a seemingly sane person into insane action? … there must be some subconscious force.. This force is the denied feeling of anger. Because the anger is denied, it is not experienced, which would give he person some control over it.

Many narcissists develop an ego unconscious split in these circumstance which means at times such subconscious forces can erupt and cause havoc or be projected on others. Such and effect is called flooding…. an overwhelming feeling or excitation which ..”(temporarily drowns us)…in the torrent of sensation. Imagine a river overflowing its banks and sweeping across the surrounding country side. In a similar way the gush of feeling wipes out normal boundaries of the self, making it difficult for the person to distinguish between inner and outer reality. Reality becomes confused and nebulous….. (there is a sense of) nothing solid to cling on to. The person feels ‘at sea,’ estranged.

Such estrangement is not dissimilar to dissociation although Lowen compares it to disorientation. The flooding of something we held down can make us dizzy, it may erase normal consciousness for a time. It may well be what we experience in a panic attack (repressed or split off lively life energy or anger). We can also be overwhelmed by pleasant sensations and if our sense of happiness or joy was also supressed or shamed in childhood we can begin to get fearful of insanity when we start to feel energised or even happy.

In the bioenergetic therapy Lowen used feelings which have been repressed or shut down are helped to liberate by the therapist who assists in the process so flooding and disorientation is not as intense as it would be if we were misunderstood or unsupported in the process.

The problem is that those damaged in childhood continue to carry split off emotions such as anger and sadness into adulthood, we may even attract relationships with others who act them out for us or vice versa, one partner can then pretend they are okay, it’s just their partner that is the problem.

Lowen points out in his book Narcissism : Denial of the True Self the connection between being called ‘mad’ (as in insane) when one is actually angry.

To say a person is mad may mean that person is either crazy or angry. What this tells us is that anger is not an acceptable emotion. Children are taught very early on to curb their anger; often they are punished if, in the course of an angry reaction, they hurt someone. Disputes, they are admonished should be settled amicably and with words. The ideal is to have reason prevail over action.

But conflicts can not always be settled amicably, with reasoning. Tempers may flare. I don’t mean one has to resort to physical violence to express an angry feeling. Anger can be expressed in a look or by the tone of one;s voice. Once can assert with feeling. “I am angry with you.” Some situations do call for the physical expression of anger. If violence is used on you it may be appropriate to fight back. Without the right to strike when one is hit, one feels powerless and humiliated. We have seen what that can do to the personality.

I strongly believe that if children were allowed to voice their anger at their parent’s whenever they felt they had a legitimate grievance, we would see far fewer narcissistic personalities. Giving a child this right would allow a real respect for the child’s feelings.

Lowen goes on to site an experience of watching a Japanese woman being hit by her daughter in anger. He explains how in Japan a child is never disciplined before the age of 6 because they are regarded to be innocent and such children don’t end up disrespectful or misbehaving. However when the right of angry expression is denied a child it has an adverse impact and then there are the parents who cannot express their own anger with a child in a healthy way and use punishment instead. Lowen doesn’t negate the need for discipline, only the use of power and control in the face of a child the parent does not have a healthy way of relating to and helping to develop emotionally.

Such repression of anger in a person in childhood means anger stays present in the person’s system much later in life. In his bioenergetic therapy Lowen helps patient to discharge repressed anger so that it does not stay trapped inside. However as he points out, the fear of ones anger and belief it will prove one is insane is a difficulty that many narcissistically injured person’s face on the path to healing.

For narcissists to know themselves, they have to acknowledge their fear of insanity and to sense the murderous rage inside that they identify with insanity. But they can only do this if the therapist is aware of those elements and is not afraid of them. I find it helpful to point out to my patients that what they believe is insane – namely, their anger – is in fact sense if they can accept it. In contrast, their behaviour without feeling, which they regard as sane,is really crazy.

The behaviour without feeling that Lowen mentions here in fact leads to the growing or development of what he calls a thick skin, a protective defensive layer which will allow no real feeling for self or others in those with a narcissistic defence,

such denial is achieved by deadening the surface to stimuli, its effect is to rigidify the ego. … the result is a diminishing of the ego’s capacity to respond emotionally to reality or to change reality in line with one’s feelings.. the ego’s safety lies in a deadened body, with little emotion. Yet this very deadening creates a hunger for sensation, leading to the hedonism typical of a narcissistic culture.

But true feeling is then increasingly hidden behind a façade and the building charge of need and hidden feeling is defended against. Thus addictions come to play a role in diverting attention from the truth.

By contrast those who develop a borderline defence to such negation actually become excessively thin skinned, unable to throw off hurts lodged deep inside from the past often from unfeeling narcissists. Their work is to understand the source of pain and not project it onto the present, understanding how deeply its roots lie hidden in an often unconscious past.

It took me a long time to understand and heal from falling in love with a person who had narcissism around 11 years ago. I was in the relationship for just under 4 tough years and was often subject to the silent treatment. He would throw a tantrum and walk out on me, or if I was also in an angry state which (at that stage of my wounded psychological development, expressing repressed feelings was impossible) he would also immediately walk out and not speak to me for days. I would get so terrified and triggered into my abandonment depression that I would bel literally begging for any kind of contact and to get it I had to admit how wrong and bad I was. I look back now and even writing about it is retraumatising all these years later.

It is next to impossible to explain to someone who has secure attachment how extremely annihilating and traumatising being left in this way or given the silent treatment is for someone with insecure or unstable attachment trauma is.

Anyway after he dumped me just under 8 years ago I finally got help and I was lucky enough to come across the work of Kim Saeed on this site who herself has recovered from a traumatising relationship with a narcissist and now does healing and provides information for others who suffer. Her site is well worth a look and today I am sharing this post on the effects of the silent treatment, to help anyone who is on the receiving end of it. Its also something my mother used on me more than once and left me so, so deeply fearful and insecure as a teenager and young adult.

Pain of early separations from our mother can haunt us for a long time and we may not always know what the pain is about. It’s an issue that Mark Wolynn, San Francisco based therapist on multigenerational trauma addresses at length in his book It Didn’t Start With You : How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle. The separation may not have been physical alone, it could be just that our mother was undergoing a depression, grieving a loss or being unseen and unnurtured by her own mother did not know how to be fully present for us. (According to Wolynn the original problem or disruption often lies a generation or two back and we may be unaware of it). We feel the loss and absence keenly and such feelings can cause us to actually turn away when our mother tries to connect with us another time.

Wolynn shares just such a story on page 175 about a baby Myrna whose mother leaves for three weeks. On her return as she waits and longs for her daughter to run to her Mryna’s mother experiences instead a daughter who turns away becoming even more distant. Rather than understand her daughter’s reactions and look for a way to restore the bond Myrna’s mother instead encourages her independence. The mother loses sight of her child’s vulnerability, so where did it go for Myrna? Answer in short. Into the unconscious.

Of course later when Myrna fell in love, love was experienced as a minefield and its something I can relate to as will anyone with insecure, avoidant or anxious attachment. Vulnerability of needing another opens up a pit of loss we do not fully understand and we can relate by sabotaging things further should we choose to deny or repress our true need feelings and vulnerability.

Mark Wolynn talks of interruptions to the flow of love and energy between parent and child a lot in his book. He knows a lot about it as he pursued a path of so called ‘spiritual bypassing’ seeking a healing he could not find in ashrams and through meditation (though he does use visionary meditations with a clients ancestors in order to effect healing of past wounds carried on). Wolynn did not heal his early trauma with his mother until years later understanding how its roots lay far back in his own mother and grandmother’s history and eventually becoming a therapist himself.

When our early experience with our mother is disrupted by a significant break in the bond, shards of pain and emptiness can shred our well being and disconnect us from the fundamental flow of life. Where the mother-child relationship remains severed, empty or fraught with indifference, a stream of negative images can lock the child in a pattern of frustration and self doubt. In extreme cases, when the negative images are continuous and unrelenting, frustration, rage, numbness, and insensitivity to others can emerge.

Psychopathic behaviour can be the result but the key result if often a form of pathological narcissism – an inability to truly connect and take in love.

According to Wolynn the majority of us have experienced some kind of break in the bond with our mothers. Many though, got enough of what was needed to be able to maintain healthy relationships later in life. Many of us were not so lucky. Ideally disruptions to attunement need to be healed in the context of any relationship. How we deal with them are important as are the beliefs about our inherent lovability. According to Janet Woititz adult children of addiction and trauma believed they will only be loved if they act in a pleasing happy way. No relationship can survive like this and neither can we.

Knowing what happened in the bond with our mother and the impact it had on our attachment style as well as inherent negative self beliefs and development of what Wolynn calls ‘core sentences of separation’ is vitally important if we wish to heal. We can become conscious of these, work to understand how they may be influencing our present and do inner work to change negative core beliefs we may have absorbed unconsciously so they do not continue to play our in our relationships. I have found so much help myself reading Wolynn’s book which I shared from extensively in my blog last year. It is well worth a look if you struggle to maintain healthy loving relationships in your own life and are working to understand how the flow of love between you and a parent (not only your mother) is impacting you in later life.

(Examples of core beliefs which negatively impact our capacity to love and be loved are : I’ll be left: I’ll be abandoned. I’ll be rejected. I’ll have nobody. I’ll lose control. I’ll be helpless. I don’t matter. I’m too much. I am not enough. I’ll be annihilated. I’ll be destroyed. I will push love away.)

As empaths we need all the resources and knowledge at our disposal to stay healthy and learn about the dynamics of emotions and energy exchange, that is why I was so pleased to come across the new book by medical doctor and empathic wise woman Christine Northrup : Dodging Energy Vampires : An Empath’s Guide to Evading Relationships that Drain You and Restoring Your Health and Power.

It is already confirming a lot of things I have experienced and explains well the biological changes in stress hormones that we produce in relationship to being in toxic or draining relationships with others when we are very open to love and care as empaths and most especially those of us who never got a lot of emotional needs met in a healthy way in our families of origin.

I am just going to share a bit of it in this post to help readers. This extract concerns how empaths in believing they should always work to help, heal or show support to others often stay stuck in detrimental relationships which cause us not only psychic and psychological pain but also increasing ill health or susceptibility to auto immune difficulties, weight gain and/or loss and other diseases.

If you’re in a relationship with an energy vampire, the question is: Why don’t you get out? Why don’t you speak up and protect yourself?

As I mentioned, many empaths do get out. They see the problems and ditch the vampire pronto. But for those who don’t there are two main reasons. First, you are naturally compassionate and caring, so you may simply miss the red flags. That can happen if you’re not paying full attention to your intuition and the circumstances surrounding you. And second, your wounds have created in you a powerful desire to be accepted and an overwhelming belief that you shouldn’t hurt other people’s feelings. And for old soul empaths, there is a third things that keeps us stuck: We truly believe that our love and caring can heal other people – in this case, the vampire. And although we may see the red flags, we believe that things will be different with us – that those other people who hurt the vampire just didn’t have the skill and compassion that we have.

While our initial response to the inevitable ill treatment of us in anger, hurt, and disappointment , we quickly squelch these natural feelings and replace them with guilt – something we learned to do in the past, either way far back in another lifetime or in childhood. Or, more likely, both.

We make the mistake of thinking that energy vampires are as sensitive as we are. We don’t want to risk hurting their feelings, so in order to protect them and their feelings – and because we are so good at solving problems in all the other areas of our lives – we keep giving them our energy and draining ourselves rather than risk standing up to them, standing up for ourselves, and owning how angry, hurt, and disappointed we really feel. And then ending the relationship.

….trying to convince them to get help and to change their ways…..is a dead end street.. because they don’t change. What has to change in every single relationship with an energy vampire is you.

The lack of self worth and need to be accepted and need to be loved that many of us have makes us a perfect target for energy vampires and the darker parts of human nature. (This what we most need to work to change in order to heal the toxic pattern.)

Christine goes on to explain also how the Buddhist concept of sending love to those who hurt, angered or betrayed us is also not useful for empaths, something that has bothered me in the past when I have read up on Buddism and also when I was in AA. The appropriate response to these kind of feelings should not be to work harder to forgive those who upset, distress or abuse us or don’t want to change or seek a true spritual or psychological solution or healing. Really who we should be loving and praying and caring for is ourselves and those other kind, supportive, emotionally healthy people in our life who actually give to us rather than drain our energy or suck away our life’s blood continually.

My brother called last night to tell me my sister was finally admitted to the care facility at the hospital. I made the mistake of trying to address some of what I had found out had triggered my sister feeling so anxious with him and he just shut me down. The first thing that triggered my reaction of feeling so angry were the words ‘she was in a highly irrational state’ this from a man whose daughter said to me ‘Dad will rationalise until the cows come home.’ He then said he didnt want to get involved in any complicated analysis of what my sister is thinking and feeling, it was in no way complex, she was terrified of not ‘measuring up’ something her best friend told me when I let her know my sis was in hospital.

I had to end the conversation with my brother as I was so angry and I woke at 4 am feeling how the anger was sitting in my body and I ended up growling like a wild lion in the middle of the night and then when I settled down my little dog Jasper gave a little bark. I know he picks up on things as when my brother came around the other day and invaldiated me he left the room immediately we sat down to talk. Gotta love how animals just act on their instincts as far as humans are concerned.

When I called my sister’s friend back and got angry she got panicked and said ‘don’t get angry with him, he’s just putting up defences and its not only his loss but his sister’s loss as well.’ I wasnt bothered by her trying to calm me down, it was for my own good and is a sign when I dialogued with my inner child/self I need to have stronger boundaries around him and lower expectations. I should have learned this by now as long time followers will know I’ve been here countless times before.

When I have expressed either sadness or anger with my brother its like he has seen it as some kind of flaw, error or weakness in me. My therapist said as much yesterday. I then become the ‘bad’ one (for being angry/’mad’) and need to be distanced from which can leave me questioning if I really am bad and sane at all. Around his family I am constantly made to feel lower than pond scum, and his wife is a rigid narcissist with a lot of blocked feelings and looks upon hugs and other displays of affection as weakness.

Truth is this morning I felt sadness and compassion for my brother but not enough to want to have contact with him much. I want to handle all my own affairs independently although I did ask him for some help as Mum’s ashes have still not been collected and there is so much to do with sorting out her unit and my sister’s collapse means its not possible for her to do it and I understand why. But part of me doesnt want to spend any extended time in his company. I felt hatred for him last night and murderous rage to be totally honest!

I know staying angry with my brother probably wont help and will only do me damage. Good thing was last night I saw how it affected me bodily and in my gut and digestion. It took a lot of work to get going today as I was awake from 4 to 6 am and then up at 8.30. But I am getting through. The mowing people came to clear the yard today and I was able to speak to my nephew who gets how I feel and is so supportive in encouraging me to keep good boundaries. His advise was ‘to put on my Scobby Do mask’ with my brother. I am not a good mask wearer would just rather keep a distance but I know letting out my emotions with him is not a good idea as it is not with any narcissist who sees feelings as a sign of irrationality and weakness. What is most important is that I don’t end up making myself feel bad or wrong for feeling or finding healthy ways to express and contain them.

Ive watched and read a lot on narcissism in my time of dealing with my own and other’s wounds but this video is the one that most clearly articulates the inherent scars that underlie the disorder and keeps us off the blame spectrum. It also explains to me a lot of what I went through in struggling with repressed feelings and with those in relationships who did not want to deal with theirs. Well worth a view.

Lack of clear perception into our selves often comes from our early environment and deficits in mirroring. If we consider generational and collective impacts too many of our parents and their parents and parents parents were engaged in a process of survival. Attention was tied up with outer, rather than inner concerns and losses may have made one parent less emotionally available to them, leaving psychic and emotional deficits and burdens. The research and work I have quoted from in previous posts from Mark Wolynn on multi generational trauma(It Didn’t Start With You) addresses these issues in some way and shows how people tend to disconnect from parents in this situation, feeling hurt, betrayed abandoned or let down, often rightly so. However there may be so much more to their story we never get to know.

Once we become more aware that our emotionally unavailable parents laboured under very real deficits, deficits that they passed down to us we can begin to take steps to address what we carry and hopefully become more aware of when and how we may have become self absorbed ourselves.

According to Nina Brown, author of Children of the Self Absorbed, the first step to reduce self absorbed behaviors is to accept that we may have absorbed some of them from our parents. She outlines ten key behaviors associated with self absorption we may need to address or work upon as follows :

An attitude of entitlement. Feeling that you deserve preferential treatment. That you can do or say whatever you like to others and that they shoud not be upset. The idea you deserve special consideration or treatment. Insensitivity to others.

Attention seeking. Behaviors such as talking loudly when it will disturb others. Dressing just for attention. Trying to distract or upstage others. Starting fights. Interrupting ongoing conversations. Dropping hints and teasers. (All with the intent to gain outside validation that you are significant, important, different to or better than others, or to reassure yourself that you are worthwhile, or to ease chronic self doubt.)

Admiration seeking. Yearning for reassurance you are valued through different means including the attainment of material or ‘status’ symbols.

Grandiosity. Taking over in situations where it is not called for. Feeling you are inherently superior to others. Arrogance. Displaying contempt. Failure to value the opinions of others. Acting big as a defence against feeling small or shameful inside.

An impoverished self. This is the self that feels deprived, ignored, abandoned or unnurtured or treated unfairly. And this is all a matter of perception for as Brown points out me may not have a lot of support but still feel we are supported by the Universe. Focusing on weaknesses or what you do not have instead of what you do. Lack of ability to take constructive action to fix or address what you can.

Lack of Empathy. Restricted or limited ability to sense what another person is experiencing inwardly in a specific situation without becoming enmeshed in their feeling or experience or reactions or overwhelmed by them. Being able to hear and sense what lies behind words and actions… the real message behind the words. (Brown notes we cannot be empathic with everyone all of the time and at times being too open to negative or toxic feelings can be inappropriate. Brown says “Many adults who were not subject to a parent with a Destructive Narcissistic Pattern.. are able to be empahic with many people some of the time. “)

Seeing Others As Extensions of Self. According to Brown “the self absorbed person is only dimly aware of other people in the world as separate and distinct from her (or him), and at the unconscious level thinks others exist to serve her (or him). The self absorbed person sees everything in terms of self, as if they were the only real person in the world.” This leads to : lack of respect for other’s possessions and boundaries, making decisons that affect others without consultation, making choices and decisions for others who are able to decide for themselves, touching things that belong to others without permission. Asking overly personal questions.

Needing to be percieved as unique and special by others. Everyone needs to know they are unique, special and worthy but when self absorbed this is taken to an extreme, or acted upon in a demanding way. This relates to having an extra high opinion of oneself that is not based in fact. It can lead to a lack of respect for others needs and rights. It can result in criticism of others faults and flaws. Making comparisons that put them up and the other person down. Blaming others for getting in the way. Needing to be complimented or praised first.

Exploitation of Others This involves using other to gain benefit, coupled with the conviction that others are not as worthy. Taking advantage of another person’s kind, generous or caring nature, desire to please or need for approval just to serve the self. Expecting favours without reciprocation. Lying, cheating, misleading. Using “if you loved me or cared about me” to manipulate others

Shallow Emotions. Adults with healthy narcissism can experience and express a wide and deep variety of emotions. In contrast, self absorbed adults are extremely limited in experiencing and expressing their feelings. Experiencing for them seems to be mainly limited to fear and anger and while they have the words when expressing other feelings, they don’t have the accompanying emotions. These people are not genuine in their expression of feelings, except for the variations of fear and anger. To get an idea of your range and level for experiencing emotions Nina recommends an exercise in which you make a list of each hour in the day and beside each time portion list all the feelings you remember experiencing. Beside the list of feelings list the names of people you expressed the feelings to. Review how open you were in either expressing or not expressing them. Did you have much variablity in what you felt? Did you primarily express negative feelings? Did you have an expansive or limited vocabulary for your emotions?

Emptiness at the Core of Self. Arises when children become isolated and lack meaningful connection to others. When we are not received as kids we don’t develop a strong connection to and faith in the Universe. The capacity for experiencing and understanding our feelings may be severely limited as a result. If we were not shown compassion we cannot feel it for ourselves. If we are focused on our emptiness and hurt we are robbed of seeing the beauty and wonder around us. We feel separate and disconnected and so emptiness grows. Experiencing ‘holes’ and then reaching to substances or unfulfilling activities to feel ‘full’.

Bear in mind when reading this list that there is a difference between being self absorbed and self reflective. It’s only natural that when we didnt get want we needed we would dig in and come to mistrust or not understand where others are coming from. I have written another post to follow this one soon on the distinction between self absorption and self reflection. People with destructive or malignant narcissism cannot self reflect or introspect, they tend to attack or blame often out of the narrow range of feeling, Brown speaks about in her book. We are, in healing and becoming more self aware learning to strike a balance, its painstaking work.

This is the final installment which follows on from two earlier posts on the header subject and contains exerpts that come from Chapter 6 of Nina Brown’s book Children of the Self Absorbed : A Grown Up’s Guide to Getting Over Narcissistic Parents.

Change of Pace

(We can) become so stuck in one or more routines that (we) limit (ourselves) from expanding (our) horizons, meeting new people or challenges, learning and developing (our) resources and talents, and limiting our choices. Thus, (we) place restraints on (ourselves) and limit (our) personal growth and development in some ways. An occasional change of pace can energize (us) and (our) thoughts in many ways, enrich (our) inner self, and provide for wonder and beauty in (our) life.

This is not to say that (we) should disrupt (our) life and do away with (our) routines. Such routines are beneficial. For example, I do my writing in the morning, shortly after I wake up. I first read the paper and have a cup of coffee. After that I pick up my pad and pen and begin to write. You want to maintain your constructive routines.

A change of pace is not a major disruption, it is doing something different on a trial basis to see if it is right for you, energizing in some way, or has other positive outcomes. It can be almost anything that is different from your usual routine.

Mindfulness

Becoming mindful teaches our valuable concentration that can help you stay focused on what is truly important in your life. This can be very helpful to you in interactions with your self absorbed parent, where your heightened emotional state can be distracting, even disabling. Once you get distracted or lost, you’re left with the same old feelings.

Mindfulness is done with conscious thought and intention. You expand your awareness in the moment and notice, appreciate, and even sometimes savour what you are experiencing. This awareness allows you to notice things you didn’t notice before, being something into clearer focus, sort through confusing stimuli and zoom in on important aspects, reduce some anxiety, and help you feel more in control. For example, lets suppose after by becoming more mindful you notice and experience the following with your self absorbed parent :

Your parent is saying the usual hurtful things, but you are not confused about why he is doing this and are able to see the fear your parent has of becoming old and no longer in control.

The words used by your parent seem meaningless and inaccurate and, although designed to hurt you, are bouncing off you like ball bearings bouncing off a wall.

You are able to discern your parent’s anxiety without taking it on or even feeling that you must fix it.

You are becoming aware that a role shift is in process, and that your parent is fighting but is also consciously unaware of it.

You leave the interaction less upset and stressed than usual.

Mindfulness allows you both to expand and contract. You expand your awareness and contract your focus. Practice the following exercise as many times as you possibly can throughout your day. It doesn’t take long to do it, but you can do it as long as you wish.

Developing Mindfulness

Procedure: This excercise can be done sitting, standing, reclining, walking and so on. However it is best to be alone in a quiet place.

Empty your mind.

Don’t fight intrusive thoughts.

Concentrate on your breathing and how this makes you feel. Try to slow your breath.

Become aware of your body, its tense spots, and its pleasurable spots.

Focus on what you are experiencing, doing and feeling. Stay with that and expand your awareness of sensations – seeing, hearing, smelling, touching and tasting.

Notice colors, shapes, forms, sounds, and how your body feels.

Continue your expansion as long as you wish.

Reduce your Self Absorption

This suggestion is the basis for entire books on narcissism, but we’ll only touch on the subject in his book The major premise for this suggestion is that sef absorbed behavior and attitudes are not constructive or helpful. It is important to remember that, just as your self absorbed parent cannot see his (or her) undeveloped narcissism, you are unaware of behaviors and attitudes you have that are reflective of undeveloped narcissism. Your undeveloped narcissism can do the following:

Prevent you from detoxifying yourself.

Inhibit you from developing sufficient boundary strength.

Keep you in a position where you can be easily wounded.

Interfere with developing and maintaining meaningful and satisfying relationships.

Get in the way of your reaching out and connecting to others.

Keep you in a defensive state all of the time.

Be aware that (reducing self absorption) is a life long endeavour and that you are mostly unaware of your self absorbed behaviors and attitudes, but they do have a significant effect on your self and on your relationships.

End of direct quotes

Facing the fact that we too are self aborbed is difficult. In one way we need self absorption for a time in order to delve into what is going on inside and understand how and why we are reacting as we do. However it is now proven by research into mental health and happiness that happiness rests upon being able to sustain healthy mutual life giving, love filled connections with others. This ability to connect is what is primarily wounded or undeveloped in narcissism and if we were raised with emotional neglect or by self absorbed wounded parents. Learning to reach out and connect and show empathy and understanding to and of others is a life time work. But it has great rewards.

I am so used to holding others feelings that I get upset when others won`t help me hold mine. I know its up to us to relate to our own feelings but sometimes just having a human body or soul with you as you undergo feelings helps on all kinds of levels. The best help is when they dont say much but stay present with you and you feel, felt. And then its easier to access what is inside, if you were caught up in your head before. That said there are also times we access those emotional depths best alone, and cannot share them or have them understood.

I am thinking of this as I just called to see how my Mum was, she asked me `what did I WANT` I then immediately wanted to get off the phone. I only rang to see how you are I asked. I let her go and just burst into tears. I know I said enough is enough I still worry and yes (obsess) over my Mum. Today she is pushing herself beyond her boundaries to be with her mahjong group, its okay she has the will and energy to be with them but not with my nephew. I can understand there has been so much pain with my nephew`s mother (my now dead sister) I believe Mum will do anything not to go there with her grief. Its why she married as quickly as she did after my father died and then ended up hurting the guy who really loved her, where as for her he was an escape. After they separated he used to ring me and cry over my mother, how much she had done for him, how well she had looked after him, how much he loved her. Mum would old say `he was a nice man, but I never loved him`. Its not up to me to judge my Mum but she sure doesnt go deep at times.

I just need to be with what my sadness was telling me. At the moment Mum is trying to get to be with the friends she loves who give her comfort in the way our family does not. I had the thought over past days that Mum would have been better off not having children or at least me. I was an accident, I know that much and later an accident nearly took my life. The body always knows and the soul knows when it was really wanted.

Now its up to me to mother me. My therapist is not going to do it, fair enough. She will help me to do the work as I undergo this painful time of emotionally separating with my Mum. The connection to our mother is one of the most important ones in our life. It becomes the connection to our own body. I need to nurture mine at the moment. The only real home I have is this body and I need to take care of it. I can`t look to others to do it, though some of my connections here and in the world help me in ways they could never know, just by implicitly understanding.

I must exercise gratitude for the places I am received and try to steer clear of the places I am not if I want my body to feel better. This is something I am coming to realise. And maybe my Mum should no longer have to mother any more. Maybe now she just needs time alone to get ready to die. I keep trying to reach out but maybe the universe is trying to get me to wake up to reality. I keep trying to mother my mother but maybe I should not and maybe I should stop trying to hold or give a voice to feelings she would rather not face or be with alone.